The allegations of domestic violence published in a recent article
which appeared in Tuesday’s edition of the Independent, and which were
subsequently widely republished elsewhere, are without basis and are
defamatory. Lawyers have been instructed both in France and in the UK.

July 02, 2013

In a rare break from recitals and Mimis, Romanian soprano Gheorghiu prepares for a(n incidentally not-even-close-to-being-sold-out) ROH La Rondine in a couple days, which includes advanced press to trusted journalists. On one end, Gheorghiu speaks through cake bites to BBC4's "Food For Thought" (TMI mic'ed-up mastication) and on the other, she alleges domestic abuse at the hands of former husband and onstage partner Roberto Alagna (trigger warnings all around, especially in the lingering shadow of the Charles Saatchi/Nigella Lawson AbuseGate papshots that rocketed the couple to the top of hits-for-hits trending feeds last month).

May 15, 2012

So many opera singers give predictable, boring interviews and then there's Angela with her fangs out, aiming at the jugular. Draculette zipped up a pair of Gucci boots and spoke to Corriere della Sera while vacationing on a Romanian mountaintop.

The forty-six-year old, who says that she's booked through 2016, returns to La Scala after a five-year absence for a late September Zeffirelli La Boheme. And who could forget that last time? The incredibly suckyLa Traviata with Lorin Maazel that was ripped apart by the loggionisti -- "Poor Verdi", "Poor Italy" and "Conduct a band of amateurs instead" was shouted at Maazel while Angela was labeled as "capricious" in the Italian press.

When asked about the state of opera directors in Italy, Angela says that since she hasn't been in Italy in the past five years, she doesn't really know and continued, "For fifteen years I've had the possibility to have the director that I've wanted, if I do a La Traviata, I ask for Richard Eyre, someone who isn't part of the trends," and then she gave props to conductors Evelino Pido and Marco Armilliato.

She says that she prefers classic opera productions, citing Zeffirelli's la Boheme that can resist the passage of time as opposed to Willy Decker's Salzburg Traviata, saying that even Netrebko didn't want to reprise Violetta in that production.

How does she perceive Italy? "Colleagues always say to me 'Ah no, I won't put a foot into Italy.' You guys are like the wolf in the woods, ready to eat us. You guys are starting to get associated with negative ideas about the behavior of the theaters and the audiences. You know how we joke with each other? Watch out or I'll send you to sing in Italy! In the rest of the world, booing doesn't exist."

So it's disagreed that booing's the right of the audience if they don't like the show. Are you saying that abroad they don't boo?

"Sure, but rarely and not in such a savage manner, which creates enormous psychological damages in the artists. Some of those boos to us is like stalking. Italy's remained backwards, also for this reason. We hear it like bulls in an arena. But in Spain, the bullfight has less importance. The audience comes to the theater and spends money to hear me, and I want to give everything to conquer them."

Anna the diva.

"What's wrong with stardom? If lots of things she does is to entertain, it works. I'm not a hypocrite. The people in the theater are interested in whimsy which surprises them, that which is the most prudent usually bores the most."

Is being nude on stage still provocative?

"If you have nice body, then maybe. The fact is that they don't recruit voices but bodies. If young Pavarotti today was to go to an audition, they'd send him away after two seconds without even listening to his voice. The theaters are full of gorgeous bodies and none pays attention to the timbre. If a singer's ugly and sings well, I see him as gorgeous. If a singer is gorgeous and sings poorly, I see hi as ugly. It's like that to me."

When Cappelli asked if she prefered to be on stage with her ex-husband, Roberto Alagna, Angela said, "Here's the latest -- we're back together, reunited." Alagna has scrapped the crusty tentacles from Angela's heart with an oyster shucker. She said that he's a changed man and that she didn't want to throw away everything that they had built together.

Angela on her closest rival: "I don't know...with Renee Fleming, we started together, so we don't steal the scenes. Tenors are more preoccupied with rivalry."

She finished the interview by begging Roberto Benigni for a role in his next films and she's got a thing for Meryl Streep who apparently told her that if she was reborn, she'd want to be Angela, and Angela said that it's mutual.

A+++ Angela delivers. Now if only she could be as consistently present on stage as she is in interviews.

August 26, 2011

"They needed to save the soprano [Angela Gheorghiu], no matter how willfully she distorted the phrasing, moment to moment. The conductor was expendable. My lowest point opening night came at the big ensemble number closing the third act. I cut off and everyone ended on cue, but she just hung on. It finally threw me. Yes, things got very wobbly after that.

"So why would I want to stay on as a traffic cop, when she was running all the red lights, anyway? Bottom line, it's a blip on the radar."

March 02, 2011

Hei-Kyung Hong will sing the role of Juliette in Roméo et Juliette for performances from March 3 through March 22 this season, replacing Angela Gheorghiu, who is ill. The role of Juliette for the Saturday, March 26 performance is TBA.

Ms. Hong first sang Juliette at the Met in 1996. Her repertory with the company encompasses 24 roles ranging from Violetta in La Traviata and Eva in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg to both Susanna and the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro.

Earlier this season, she sang Micaëla in Carmen. Roméo et Juliette, conducted by Plácido Domingo, also stars Piotr Beczala as Roméo, Julie Boulianne as Stéphano, Lucas Meachem as Mercutio, and James Morris as Frère Laurent.

Casting Update News - REVISED

Hei-Kyung Hong will sing the role of Juliette in Roméo et Juliette for all performances this season, replacing Angela Gheorghiu, who is ill. This is a revision of an announcement earlier today that said the March 26 performance was TBA. Roméo et Juliette opens on March 3 and runs through March 26. Ms. Hong first sang Juliette at the Met in 1996.

Her repertory with the company encompasses 24 roles ranging from Violetta in La Traviata and Eva in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg to both Susanna and the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro.

Earlier this season, she sang Micaëla in Carmen. Roméo et Juliette, conducted by Plácido Domingo, also stars Piotr Beczala as Roméo, Julie Boulianne as Stéphano, Lucas Meachem as Mercutio, and James Morris as Frère Laurent.

January 29, 2011

Angela Gheorghiu's the cover-girl of French Classica's February issue in a soft-focus, 8-page tribute to the Romanian diva. Angie says that there are still no plans to sing Puccini's Madama Butterfly live. Although she's given her fans a studio recording (with Jonas Kaufmann and Antonio Pappano), the world still waits for her to sing the role onstage.

January 19, 2011

Another year, another birthday. Placido Domingo turns 70 on January 21st. We're worried that too much world travel has influenced Angie's wardrobe -- and not in a good way. Flight attendant Angela wants to know if you'll be having the chicken or the beef.

September 18, 2010

July 21, 2010

Girl, where've you been? Fresh faced Angela Gheorghiu hung out with Plácido Domingo in Madrid yesterday for a press conference promoting Verdi's Simon Boccanegra. Teatro Real hosted opening night this past weekend with Jesús López Cobos conducting Giancarlo del Monaco's production. Tomorrow night, the star-crammed cast takes the rotation: Domingo as lead Boccanegra, Gheorghiu as Amelia, big-a$$ bass Ferruccio Furlanetto as Fiesco, and Marcello Giordani as Adorno. When Angie, Placidone, Furlanetto and Giordani are off doing whatever it is that makes them all so fabulous, this current run of Teatro Real's Boccanegra stars Inva Mula as Amelia, Giacomo Prestia as Fiesco, Fabio Sartori as Adorno, and George Gagnidze as Boccanegra.

May 14, 2010

Just as she's turned performance cancellations into an art form, she's channeled her wardrobe prowess and finally embraced her curves. Or maybe she's hired a stylist. Wearing a stunning red Calvin Klein gown might have something to do with it. Anyway, we finally know how she spends all the free time from missed rehearsals -- eating right, taking care of herself, shopping for the right gowns.

Winning the Classical Brits for "Female Artist of the Year" (see previous post), OC awards Angela Gheorghiu as Best Dressed Opera Celeb in attendance. Heck, OC awards her as Best Dressed Overall -- Dame Kiri, we unconditionally love you, but that feathered red number looked like you just walked off a '70s Muppet Show guest appearance; Hayley Westenra's tiara was a straight-up flashback to The Neverending Story's Childlike Empress; Rolando's cane? The least of his problems right now is his wardrobe, so we'll stop right there.

March 04, 2010

The Romanian soprano added new photos to her gallery from a recent photoshoot where dress-up attire was platform heels, aggressive wigs, and avant-garde dresses. Trading in her light-rinse jeans, hooded sweatshirts and heels, affecting a very Lady Gaga vibe, she's a ~superstar~.

(lots of love to E.R. for the images)

Click for the rest of the photos, including Lady Gheorghiu in a green wig!

On Sunday the 6th of December this year, Angela Gheorghiu will perform in a Gala at the Kennedy Center in Washington, in an event to be broadcast on CBS. Ms. Gheorghiu will actually pay tribute to Grace Bumbry who will receive the 32nd annual Kennedy Center Honors, which is the highest honor a performing artist can receive in the USA. The other honorees are Mel Brooks, Bruce Springsteen, Robert DeNiro and Dave Brubeck. The audience at the Kennedy Center that will also include the President of the USA and the First Lady.

When Gheorgy met Obamy! In addition to the highly-deserving Miss Bumbry, the list of 2009 honorees rounds out with Mel Brooks, Dave Brubeck, Robert De Niro, and Bruce Springsteen. The honorees are nominated by a list that includes other ~classical luminaries~ like Barbara Cook, Thomas Hampson, Herbie Hancock, Evgeny Kissin, Patti LuPone, Yo-Yo Ma, Anna Netrebko, Frederica von Stade, Suzanne Farrell, and Zubin Mehta. The Honors Gala will be broadcast on CBS on Tuesday, December 29th at 9pm.

"I fell off the chair: I filed for divorce in Switzerland, where we live. It's all filed... he calls me every day, our relationship is civil, but he wants me back. We both suffered, this is for the best. I won't come back... I did everything I could to save the marriage, we had already suffered a crisis in 2003... I didn't want to do Aida or Cyrano, that's his repertoire...".

She has little love for the Alagna family:

"Roberto was sad because I didn't want to take part in productions directed by his brothers... He has a clannish mentality, I'm the opposite... His Sicialian blood speaks volumes... He's the one who insisted he wanted to marry me, he was free, I wasn't, I had to divorce my first husband Andrej... The media thinks I'm capricious, it's a cross I have to carry... Conductors need to think more about the people who buy tickets because my name's on the playbill. People don't care if I skip a few days of rehearsals"

Why did the marriage end, asks Corriere:

"I come from a family of means that treated me like a princess: they (ed: Alagna's family) have humble roots, I'm sorry, but the difference mattered in the end... Men can't stand a successful woman. When I made the Butterfly CD he disappeared for 10 days. But he checked on me to see if I betrayed him...".

She then denies to have a boyfriend, but says she can't vouch for Alagna's fidelity.

And drops the final nuclear bomb:

"Two composers, the American William Maselli and the Romanian Vladimir Cosma, are writing two operas about me. 'Bonnie & Clyde' and 'Draculette'. My nicknames have become trademarks. At first I thought, how dare they? But if the music's good, I'm singing them both. We just need a tenor now".

Angela
Gheorghiu wishes to emphasize that she has been separated from Roberto
Alagna for the last two years. Her attempts to save the marriage in
this period failed.Having initiated divorce proceedings months ago, she
awaits the finalisation of their divorce as soon as possible. Ms.
Gheorghiu understands that Mr. Alagna is bitter about this situation.
As for her part, contrary to his declarations, she would like to live
her life now with peace and tranquillity.

October 09, 2009

In tomorrow's edition of Le Figaro, (excerpt here) Roberto Alagna and Angela Gheorghiu will make official what everybody knew and the two singers didn't even bother to deny much anymore -- they've been separated for a while and might be on their way to a divorce (she seems to be against it, for now, he says) after 13 years of very operatic marriage:

Angela ne veut pas entendre parler de divorce. On verra.

says the excitable tenor. O.K., we'll see. Sad news because it's always sad when a marriage ends, even a wacky one such as this one, but at least the Burton-Taylor reference from Le Figaro makes it lollersome -- imagine Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf remade with these two in the lead? As an opera, maybe, written by one of the Alagna brothers? Priceless.

May 27, 2009

A few shots from HRH Angela Gheorghiu's appearance at the Colosseo benefit concert, earlier blogged about here. As guest of Andrea Bocelli, the two sang in a benefit concert on May 25 to aid the victims of the Abruzzo earthquake. Click below for another picture...